Electronic displays are provided in many contexts to electronically render digital information to a viewer. The electronic displays receive information, and render the information through lighted cells in patterns that reflect the texts and pictures employed to convey the information.
The electronic displays may be implemented in a variety of environments where electronic displays have not traditionally been employed, such as a vehicle, home appliance, advertisement/billboard, and the like. Accordingly, for aesthetic purposes, when employing said electronic displays, ensuring that said electronic displays blend into a bezel or background may be desired.
This effect, also known as a “dead-front”, and has been attempted by numerous implementers of electronic displays integrated into a variety of contexts and environments. Several implementations have been attempted; however, with each implementation drawbacks become apparent.
FIG. 1(a) illustrates a side-view of a prior art implementation of an electronic display. As shown, a display 100 is provided. The display 100 is employed to providing electronic content to a viewer of the electronic display. The display screen 100 includes a bezel 101 defining a border of the display screen. Defining the portion within the bezel 101 is a display portion. The display portion includes a backlit display 102 and a display linear polarizer 103.
The display 100 is provided with a first layer 110 directly opposed to the display 100. This first layer 110 is a neutral density filter. A neutral density filter is a filter that reduces or modifies the intensity of all wavelengths or colors, of light equally, giving no changes in hue of color rendition. The filter transmission may range from colorless (clear) to grey (opaque), but the transmission rate is constant.
Also shown is an AR film 120 (disposed on the first layer 110). The AR film 120 may be provided to cancel first surface light reflections to minimize a viewer from seeing visibility variations from the electronic display 100 due to the lighting environment to which the electronic display 100 is exposed.
FIG. 1(b) illustrates a side-view of a prior art implementation of another electronic display. As shown, an electronic display 100 is provided with a dimmable lens 130. When the electronic display 100 is intended to be off, the dimmable lens 130 is configured to be in a low transmission state, and when the electronic display 100 is intended to be on, the dimmable lens 130 is adjusted to allow the proper luminance to be presented. The prior art lens dims both the ambient light and the display transmitted light equally and does not provide a transmission preference to the display transmitted light.
In either of the solutions proffered above, a backlighting strength associated with the electronic display 100 has to be adjusted accordingly, and often times increased in order to adjust for the compensated layers. Thus, while implementing dead-front solutions, the efficiency of existing electronic displays 100 may be insufficient.